A new, $2.8 million Junior Lifeguards facility is officially open in Long Beach.

City officials celebrated the 973-square-foot facility’s opening Friday. The building will serve as the Junior Lifeguards program’s headquarters and house a year-round first-aid stingray treatment room, according to a Friday news release.

“This new, state-of-the-art facility will not only ensure our Long Beach Junior Lifeguards have the proper space to gain hands-on experience in public safety,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in the release, “but it will also offer year-round first-aid assistance to anyone in need.”

The original facility was built in the 1930s and was used as a lifeguard tower until the early 1970s, when the Junior Lifeguards program moved in, the city said. The 665-square-foot building didn’t have restrooms, offices or other amenities. It also wasn’t up to current city safety codes and lacked capacity for the growing interest in the Junior Lifeguards program.

The new building, meanwhile, boasts additional square footage, a new foundation, utilities, offices and bicycle racks.

“Our new Junior Lifeguard headquarters is an investment in public safety and an investment in our youth,” said 3rd District Councilmember Kristina Duggan. “The Junior Lifeguard program has so much to offer youth interested in lifeguarding, public safety and local marine life.”

The project was funded through Long Beach’s Tidelands Area Fund, which is largely made up of revenue from the city’s oil operations. The original building will be torn down after the summer, the city said.